[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The GreatViews expressed here are not necessarily the views & opinions of ActivistChat.com. Comments are unmoderated. Abusive remarks may be deleted. ActivistChat.com retains the rights to all content/IP info in in this forum and may re-post content elsewhere.

Yushchenko seems to have won, big big bigtime, in the Ukraine. Big turnout--around 78%--and big margin, about 15 points. It's a dramatic and important moment, and the winning forces of the "orange revolution" are right to talk about democratic revolution. Here is yet another case where the forces of repression seemed to have all the advantages, including the reconstituted KGB and the full, cynical, support of a nasty Russian tyrant. Yet freedom won.
For those of us who have long preached the power of democratic revolution, it's a happy day, and I hope that our leaders draw the appropriate lessons:
--The mild support we gave to the democratic forces in the Ukraine proved far more powerful than most of the experts expected. The revolutionaries required a bit of guidance in the methods of non-violent resistance, a bit of communications gear, and many words of encouragement. They did the rest. The same can and should be done elsewhere in the world (Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, China, North Korea...)
--Our democratic values are shared by the overwhelming majority of the people in the world, and are rejected, sometimes violently, by tyrants and their followers. We need to stick to our principles, which means that we cannot blindly and compulsively support all the policies of individual anti-democratic leaders just because they help us. That kind of support always gets us in trouble (as in the Middle East, where we are justly criticized for our many decades of support for corrupt tyrants). Sometimes we will have to make some compromises, but when we do, we must still support democratic forces--openly, unapologetically;

--You can't always see the revolutionary forces inside oppressive countries, but, given a chance, they will emerge more often than not. We are the most successful revolutionary society in history, we have to stand with our people, everywhere;
--When we have alliances with "friendly tyrants" (Musharaff, Putin, Mubarak, Deng, the Saudis et. al.), we must encourage them to get on the right side of history, and share power. This is the only honest way to manage such alliances, because it is only a matter of time before the American people turn against our tyrannical allies, and we will then abandon them, usually in the worst circumstances. Thus, for example, it is fine to condemn and fight against Chechen terror, but it is wrong to remain silent in the face of Russian massacres in Chechnya. Freedom is the best weapon against the terrorists, everywhere, because free societies are much less likely to support them; The "age of the second democratic revolution," which began with the death of Franco and continued through the fall of the Soviet Empire, is still very much with us. The cynical and exhausted leaders of France, Germany, and post-Aznar Spain don't believe in it, but they are increasingly irrelevant to world affairs.

A great day for freedom. If we do not flag, we'll have many more in the near future._________________Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)

but it is wrong to remain silent in the face of Russian massacres in Chechnya. Freedom is the best weapon against the terrorists, everywhere, because free societies are much less likely to support them;

That's why I admire the neocons against the so-called "realists" ( read appeasers)_________________Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)

Finally, and not to get too old-fashioned-realist here, but . . . the Iranians are not "our people." Neither are the Syrians, the Saudis, the Chinese, or the North Koreans. And they do not become "our people" just by believing in democracy, or even by establishing democratic self-government. An Iranian democracy would be a good thing in countless ways -- but it would also probably be just as hell-bent as the current regime on acquiring nuclear weapons, flexing its muscles in Iraq, and perhaps even sponsoring anti-Israeli terrorism. As such, it would be our strategic rival, not our brother nation, even were its constitution copied word-for-word from ours.

Although Michael is my friend, I certainly don't need to do his battles for him. Indeed, we don't agree on everything. But this statement by Douthat seemed peculiar--and not just because of the off-puttingly racist locution of "our people," made espeically so in the light of the horrendous tsunami disaster in Asia. (Are these people our people?) And without rehearsing the WMD argument,which in terms of all these nations (and Iraq) should encompass the hugely dangerous proliferation issue, vastly more important than whether Saddam had gas canisters lying around or whether he destroyed them or hid them under some Syrian sand dune (who knows and finally who cares?). Anyone who doesn't think Saddam would have delighted in nuclear weapons and in the post A. Q Khan world was only a phone call or two away from them is not thinking straight. Who does Mr. Douthat believe was going to monitor those calls? The United Nations?

The problem is that Douthat et al have no answer other than the snide to Ledeen's optimism because they have no answer, no proposal, at all. They offer fashionable hard-boiled realism which, in the end, is only laziness. Whoever said democracy would be easy in those places? (Maybe some did, but they were wrong in that. But that doesn't make them wrong in their intention.) We are in this for the long haul, the very long haul. I would suggest Mr. Douthat suck it up and give the optimists their due. They're the ones driving the car forward... unless he has a better concrete suggestion.

Special note to Mr. Douthat: I was fairly involved in the Civil Rights Movement of the Sixties, went down South on all the Freedom Ride stuff. (Yeah, I'm that old.) As I recall that took a long time, but it was worth it. Give the Iranians a shot too. They're worth it. Remember John Donne... No Man is an Island... I know it's optimistic, but think about it. Or as they say in zen--you don't get there by trying, but you can't get there if you don't try._________________Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)